Glasgow drink driver who 'could have killed someone' gets private hire licence

A man who was told he “could have killed someone” after he was found to be more than double the drink-drive limit has been granted a private hire licence.

Rizwan Javid can work as a private hire driver in Glasgow despite an objection from Police Scotland. He was banned for 12 months — later reduced to nine — following a drink driving incident in July 2021.

But, after his solicitor argued he has come “a long way since then”, the city’s licensing committee granted a restricted one-year licence, rather than the requested three years.

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They also issued a warning to Mr Javid, who told councillors he has not drunk alcohol since the incident, when he was going through a bad time after his cousin’s death.

A police officer told the committee that Mr Javid had been convicted in April 2022 as he drove a vehicle “after consuming so much alcohol the proportion of it in his breath was 56mcg in 100ml of breath”. The limit is 22mcg.

As well as the driving ban, which was reduced after the applicant completed a rehabilitation course, he was fined £400.

Mr Javid’s solicitor said his client, who had been in his early 20s at the time, had made changes to “ensure this type of incident doesn’t happen again”. He added the applicant is now married and expecting a child.

He submitted a reference from his present employer, where he works as a delivery driver, which showed he had “not had any issues”.

Mr Javid expressed his regret over the incident which he said happened after “one of my cousin’s had passed away, with cancer”.

Cllr Alex Wilson, SNP, the committee chairman, said: “You were twice over the limit, you weren’t just a wee bit over the limit.

“You could have killed someone, regardless of any personal circumstance where someone is going through a hard time, if you drink, you don’t get behind the wheel of a car.

“Your senses are all over the place, you could have killed yourself, you could have killed someone else. Mistakes happen but that’s a very serious mistake.”

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